“We're building a ground-up new facility for Fiat in Grandville,” said Aaron Zeigler, president of the Kalamazoo-based car retailer, which is named for his father. “The building will sit just west of our Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep facility there (at 4200 Parkway Place Drive).”

He said the new building will include a 6,000-square-foot showroom and be a prototype building for the Fiat brand. Construction work started about a month ago and is to be completed in October.

Fiat Chrysler LLC reintroduced the Italian car brand to the American market last year after a 27-year absence by opening franchises in big cities across the country. The Zeigler Auto Group opened a location in Schaumburg, Ill., in June of 2011 and began selling the Fiat 500, a fuel-efficient, four-seat mini-car.

The Grandville dealership is to be built on 2 of about 9 acres of property the Zeigler Auto Group has owned in Grandville since 2004. It built the Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep dealership there in 2005.

Zeigler Fiat-Grandville will mean adding another sales manager position and hiring sales people, Zeigler said. The dealership will begin with about five employees and expected to expand to about 20 during the course of its first year.

Aaron Zeigler, who has always been reluctant to disclose development costs, said he did not know how much his business is spending on the project. But he said he expects to begin selling Fiat's as soon as this coming week at the company's adjacent dealership in Grandville.

“Right now I you want to buy a Fiat, you have to go to Detroit or Chicago,” he said.

There are four or five Fiat dealerships in Chicago, and at least two in Detroit. But he said management realized that there is a six-hour travel distance between Chicago and Detroit and that Grand Rapids, while being the second largest market in Michigan, would be otherwise underserved.

Fiat started with sales of the Fiat 500 last year. It is built in Mexico and sells for less than $20,000. The company now has added a convertible version, the Fiat 500 Cabriolet, as well as a high-performance version of the car, the Fiat 500 Abarth.

“And they are bringing a four-door version of the car here in the future,” Zeigler said.

Sales are strong, he said.

“The brand has been back in the United States for a little over a year and it's picking up a lot of momentum,” he said. “Because it's doing very well in Chicago, I'm really looking forward to adding it in West Michigan.”

He said the addition will bring the Zeigler Automotive Group to 41 franchises in more than a dozen locations.